Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted that President Donald Trump’s talk about buying Greenland “is not a joke.”
“This is not about acquiring land for the purpose of acquiring land,” Rubio said in an interview on Thursday with Megyn Kelly on SiriusXM.
“This is in our national interest and it needs to be solved,” he added.
The Arctic region is going to become increasingly “critical” and it’s “realistic” to think China will beef up its presence there, said Rubio. That is “completely unacceptable” to U.S. and global security, he continued.
Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous Danish territory, would not be able to stop threats from China, Rubio warned.
“They would rely on the United States to do so,” he noted. “And so his [Trump’s] point is, if the United States is on the hook to provide as we are now, we have a defense agreement with them to protect Greenland, if it comes under assault, if we’re already on the hook for having to do that, then we might as well have more control over what happens there.”
Rubio appeared to downplay Trump’s refusal this month to rule out the use of military force in controlling Greenland as a business-like tactic to not take any leverage off the table.
Kelly asked Rubio if the U.S. will own Greenland — whose ruling party actually wants the island to be independent — by the end of Trump’s second term.
“We’ll see,” he replied, adding that Americans can “rest assured” that U.S. interests in Greenland, the Panama Canal and elsewhere will be “more secure” by that time.
Watch the full interview below.
Rubio’s Greenland comments are from the 30-minute mark.